Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [fosscomm] Kerala School text books to be Licensed under Creativecommons, Printing using FOSS Tools
On Fri, 2013-11-15 at 22:52 +0530, A. Mani wrote: Read a report in TOI http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Now-free-software-to-set-school-textbooks-in-Kerala/articleshow/25781341.cms As usual The committee on Wednesday also took a bold step to make all the educational material copyright-free. How is CC BY-SA 3.0 copyright-free? Usual misconception! recently I met people who are vocal advocates of CC in India, they also hold this misconception. -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2012
On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 10:37 AM, Shrinivasan T tshriniva...@gmail.comwrote: open the Python file and fill the login details and url for commons. copy the script to the folder where you have the images. run the following command. python mediawiki-uploader.py mail me if you have any issues. We tried this script for some folders. the feedback is as follows: while running the script, it cribbed about missing module poster. I have installed it using pip. then another missing dependency was python-pyexiv2. apt-get install python-pyexiv2 took care of this. after that the script ran successfully. -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2012
On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 10:37 AM, Shrinivasan T tshriniva...@gmail.comwrote: open the Python file and fill the login details and url for commons. copy the script to the folder where you have the images. run the following command. python mediawiki-uploader.py mail me if you have any issues. Please confirm if you are coming to the lab. i will make sure that the software that you need is preloaded or it should be possible for your to install. How many wikimedians are expected. -- GN http://metaStudio.org/ reShaping Education ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press]: The Indian Express : Would Gandhi have been a Wikipedian?
On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 11:38 AM, CherianTinu Abraham tinucher...@gmail.com wrote: The Indian Express : Would Gandhi have been a Wikipedian? ( Article by Achal Prabhala) http://www.indianexpress.com/news/would-gandhi-have-been-a-wikipedian/900506/1 http://www.indianexpress.com/news/would-gandhi-have-been-a-wikipedian/900506/0 ( Single Page Version) In 1941, a young Argentinian librarian who would soon go completely blind published a story about the futility of the “total” library. His inspiration was Kurd Lasswitz, a 19th century German philosopher and science-fiction pioneer, whose own idea of a “universal” library was a mathematical nightmare of frighteningly large but finite proportions. The writer was Jorge Luis Borges, and his story, The Library of Babel, (taking off from the mythical Tower of Babel, a place of linguistic dysfunction) spawned a minor publishing industry of its own. Borges’ library was not a happy place: its chronically overworked librarians were suicidal, thuggish cults periodically vandalised the books, people spent lifetimes searching for a catalogue without success, and — wondrous as it all was — no one expected to find anything useful there ever. Eighty years after it was written, Borges’ feverish fantasy is a cautionary tale for those who are tempted to take Internet-era fantasies at their word. When a Google executive was asked to describe the perfect search engine, he is reported to have said, “It would be like the mind of God.” Preposterous, yes; but also exciting. And anyone excited enough to adopt this as a mission statement would do well to have a cold shower, and heed Borges’ conclusion on the topic — “The library is unlimited and cyclical”. Happily, there are more human, and altogether more humble manifestations of the desire to learn and share and prosper. In ancient history, the pre-biblical city of Babylon was a working counterpoint to the biblical Tower of Babel; a bustling site where diverse crowds made good together. In the present day, we are no closer to knowing everything, but we have Wikipedia: a bustling website where diverse people from everywhere in the world create miracles. Wikipedia’s humility is the flip-side to its success, and it comes from wanting to be precisely the opposite of the total library: call it a perpetually partial library, if you will. No one who has spent even a minute contributing anything to it would dare assume that the job is done, the perspective complete, or the game won. Eleven years ago to this day, Jimmy Wales typed out “Hello world!” and Wikipedia was born. In 1989, Richard Stallman pioneered a form of copyright licensing for software that allowed programmers and users to do virtually anything they liked with it. This formed the basis for free and open source software, or FOSS. In 1995, Ward Cunningham used FOSS to build the underlying software for a novel form of collaboration — the “wiki”. By this time, the benefits of a generous copyright licence to software were apparent, and it was extended to mainstream culture — to words, sounds and images. Wikipedia was among the early exponents of this free culture experiment, quickly followed by sister projects of the Wikimedia Foundation: Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks and more. Wikipedia’s collaborative system of knowledge has exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations. Today, it is the world’s fifth most visited website — and the sole non-profit upstart in the oligarchical fiefdom that is our online landscape. There are thriving communities of volunteers in countries like India and South Africa, among several other places, who are helping us discover that learning does not have to be a passive act, and that the value of generosity can be productive and revolutionary at once. Interestingly enough, it was about a hundred years ago that a young, idealistic lawyer set off on a similar journey. Affected by colonialism in his home, India, and faced with debilitating segregation laws in his adopted home, South Africa, he saw the productive and revolutionary potential in generous knowledge. Over a long sea journey from London to Cape Town, he wrote down his ideas on self-determination and independence. The young lawyer was, of course, Gandhi, and his book, Hind Swaraj, would go on to become the intellectual blueprint for the Indian freedom movement. The original was written in Gujarati in 1909. One year later, it was translated into English and published as Indian Home Rule. On the cover of the first edition of this English translation is a prominent, if unusual, copyright legend. It reads, “No Rights Reserved”. This is news to me. here is the link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Gandhi-Home-Rule-First-Edition-1909.jpg a page I will show to every one! -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Aakash UbiSlate 7
On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 7:50 PM, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.org wrote: So the fabled tablet has launched. http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=76476 What interests me is this: Content Creation The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT) has proposed 18 different line items for content creation. All content that is created under this Mission needs to meet the following criteria: · It should be related to education delivery. · It should involve faculty from different institutions · All IP (Intellectual Property) created under projects funded by this Mission will vest with MHRD This by itself may not be a problem, as long as it is copyrighted with an appropriate CC clause. Let us send a representation. -- GN http://metaStudio.org/ reShaping Education ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] social media to use
On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 2:14 PM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Can you share where you have spotted this? We're not planning to have a twitter account, just a hashtag - #wci11. This is also being used on identi.ca by a few users and we encourage this. We'd like to correct the error. this was posted by CherianTinu abrakham: *Penn-Olson : Its Wikipedia Season in India* http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/09/07/wikipedia-indi/ *Wikipedia is now all set for it’s first WikiConference in India which is scheduled to be held in Mumbai on November 18th, 2011. Delegates from any country can participate, but the conference will be quite India-centric, according to the event page on Wikimedia.* * * *Here’s a quick overview of the schedule for the WikiConference which will act as a platform for Indian Wikimedians and Wikipedians to meet, discuss, and share their opinions regarding Wikipedia India issues, Indian language projects on Wikipedia, and discuss affairs in the Wikicommunity in India andabroad. * * * *Date 18th to 20th November, 2011* *Venue Convocation Hall, University of Mumbai (Fort Campus) associated rooms* *Accommodation Sea Green Hotel and Chateau Windsor hotel (for those who receive scholarships)* *Hosts Mumbai and Pune Wikipedia communitites, Wikimedia India branch* *Sponsors Wikimedia Foundation, Eregnow.com* *Social Media Facebook and Linkedin event pages, and official Twitter account* *Email confere...@wikimedia.in* * * * * *We recently spoke with the India program consultant to WikiMedia, Mr. Hisham Mundol. We discussed the WikiConference, a new Wiki course in the College of Engineering at Pune (CoEP), and how to be a Wikipedia contributor.* * * *What is the conference all about? Why is it being held and how do you think it’s beneficial for Wikipedia?* * * *This conference is going to be the first national conference held by the Wikimedia community in India. It’ll be fantastic for the existing community to meet up and share stories and knowledge and have a good time! We also hope that it will attract newcomers to Wikipedia.* * * *Also, Wikipedia’s activities in India have increased as it has recently collaborated with College of Engineering, Pune launching a course in which over 800 students will contribute to the Wikipedia’s page as a part of their first semester.* * * *Why did Wikipedia choose CoEP over top colleges like the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and National Institute of Technology (NITs)?* * * *The College of Engineering at Pune has a wonderful reputation, student body, and faculty. We decided to do the pilot in Pune – and we’re honored the CoEP has agreed to partner with us. Right now, the college has the highest number of students enrolled in our program, anywhere in the world.* * * *What benefits will this course add to Wikipedia as an organization?* * * *The Wikipedia movement will gain tremendously because of the quality of content that students are adding, and will be adding.* * * *What is the future plan? Is the organisation planning to launch this course in other colleges as well?* * * *Our immediate plans are to continue with this pilot at Pune in the short term. We are looking at a roll-out to other colleges and cities. We’d love to hear from whoever is interested. For those who want to get involved immediately, an option is to start a Wikipedia Students’ Club. There are further details available on our outreach page.* * * *How can one contribute towards the Wiki community?* * * *Anyone and everyone can contribute. You can check the Welcome to Wikipedia section and the Introduction Page.* * * *The basic process would be to read those two links, create a user account, go to the edit button on the top right of any article and start editing! You can also contribute images and other media files to Wikimedia Commons which is amongst the world’s largest storehouse of free-to-use media files.* * * *Lastly, How many Wikipedia contributors hail from India at the moment?* * * *Right now, there are about 1,500 active editors in India – but that number keeps growing. We’d like it to become many, many times larger, and we invite anyone and everyone to join in!* Regards Tinu Cherian http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Sep_2011 __ _ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas On 10 September 2011 08:18, Nagarjuna G nagar...@gnowgi.org wrote: In the recent announcement about the wikimedia conference I saw this: * Social Media Facebook and Linkedin event pages, and official Twitter account *Mediawiki as a media technology does not belong there. It is not the outcome and end that this group should be interested in, but also means of getting there. I personally think we should encourage and use the free software alternatives
[Wikimediaindia-l] social media to use
In the recent announcement about the wikimedia conference I saw this: * Social Media Facebook and Linkedin event pages, and official Twitter account *Mediawiki as a media technology does not belong there. It is not the outcome and end that this group should be interested in, but also means of getting there. I personally think we should encourage and use the free software alternatives like identi.ca, diaspora so that the event takes an opportunity to promote these media which protects user's freedom. By linking your account to other facebook or twitter followers to identi.caaccount you will help tell the world that microblogging can be done with free software as well and your event supports/sponsors identi.ca. I do hope the mediawiki conference supports free social media and uses this occasion to spread this message among the wikimedians. -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: On creating an Indian Wikisource
Wikimedia India chapter may consider writing to HBCSE, TIFR in Mumbai or TISS in Mumbai to host a facility explaining why and how they can do this. gnowledge lab of HBCSE will be glad to maintain the archive once an understanding between the chapter and HBCSE is worked out. bandwidth, disk space and legal responsibility are the main things that will come up on the table while negotiating. Could CC India be roped in as well? -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] On creating an Indian Wikisource
On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 5:42 PM, Arjuna Rao Chavala arjunar...@gmail.com wrote: The advantage of separately hosted Wikisource is that the artefacts are self contained and can be used readily. Photographic media will be mainly useful, when they are embedded in an article. May be non WMF projects can use the same. Unfortunately, this leads to fragmentation in the sense there is no one source for the sum of human knowledge. the last sentence made me think. Indeed! Todays political systems want to preserve the fragmented space, fragmented knowledge and also protect ownership of those fragments. This they do by signing bilateral treaties. Due to these unfortunate incompatibilities creative commons chapters in different countries have to write their own versions of CC licenses. As the creative commons movement grows big, we can nullify these treaties (such as TRIPS or ACTA) and achieve that sum of human knowledge in one place. -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] why use free software for making free knowledge
In this article written in 2004 Jimmy clarifies this frequently asked question. http://jimmywales.com/2004/10/21/free-knowledge-requires-free-software-and-free-file-formats/ Someone reminded me of this post in another list I am subscribed. thought it is relevant in this list as well. some of the active wikimedians in India do not use free software. Hope they will migrate soon. -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Choosing topics for Wikipedia for Schools (Offline Ed) - Indian version : #1 Cities
On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 10:07 PM, Ravishankar ravidre...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Nikhil, I register my strong objection for this. There are various concerns even if the content is children friendly: 1. The content should be free of typos, factual errors. If a school teacher browses through random content and finds that the content is full of errors, not much useful then he may not circulate the CD to students. Once people get a bad opinion of Wiki, it will take lot of effort to get rid of that. If the teachers do not take note of these and circulate it is still worse as students get wrong info. Since there is a tendency for uninformed readers to believe whatever they see in print, we have a responsibility here. I understand you are not distributing / preparing DVDs for sake of school children. Nevertheless, why can't we make sure to distribute high quality verified content to whoever it is? My approach is different. we are teaching the teachers how to type in their language, and telling them how they can create wikipages. We have told them that the wikipedia is not a completed project and needs their help. The teachers and students are not mere consumers of the knowledge wikimedians and experts create. They can detect edit, and correct mistakes on their own. During the the process they will learn as well as become fellow wikimedians. We are teaching them how to correct as well. If we are only distributing the content without making them aware of the background of the content, I agree with you, we need to be careful. Neither free software nor wikipedia succeeded without frequent releases. Both the children and teachers can understand their roles and help themselves. We can convince the administrators about this process as well. However, if we know that the current school zim files contain some pages with vandalism then we can remove them. But, we can also let the teachers and students detect the vandalism as well since our job will never end. 2. Articles need to be vandalism free. Any random zim backup you distribute may have vandal edits in at least few instances. Imagine what will be the reaction of media, academia and Government departments if a state leader's page is distributed with vandal edits. When the teachers detect the mistake, they could edit the main wikipedia themselves. It is time we tell them that education is not mere consumption of correct or perfect knowledge, but to participate in eternal perfection. Correction opportunity gives a fantastic opportunity for the teachers as well as students to understand how society works. When they are connected they access the pages from full dumps. When we give them offline version we need to tell them that the information is not guaranteed to be accurate. -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [fcf_discussion] Why don’t more scientists contribute to Wikipedia?: Survey to find out
-- Forwarded message -- From: Fuster, Mayo mayo.fus...@eui.eu Date: Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 10:34 PM Subject: [fcf_discussion] Why don’t more scientists contribute to Wikipedia?: Survey to find out To: fcforum_discuss...@list.fcforum.net fcforum_discuss...@list.fcforum.net Why don’t more scientists contribute to Wikipedia? The Wikimedia Research Committee is trying to find out why scientists, academics and other experts don’t contribute to Wikipedia. Participate at a survey to find out: http://survey.nitens.org/?sid=21693 Dario Taraborelli outlines the situation: Last month, Wikipedia celebrated its 10th anniversary, which saw considerable coverage in mainstream media. A Chronicle article observed that, today, the project does not represent “the bottom layer of authority, nor the top, but in fact the highest layer without formal vetting” and, as such, it can serve as “an ideal bridge between the validated and unvalidated Web”. An increasing number of university students use Wikipedia for “pre-research”, as part of their course assignments or research projects. Yet many among academics, scientists and experts turn their noses up at the thought of contributing to Wikipedia, despite a growing number of calls from the scientific community to join the project. The Association for Psychological Science launched an initiative to get the scientific psychology community involved in improving the quality of articles in their field, while biomedical experts recently called upon their peers to help make public health information in Wikipedia rigorous and complete. These initiatives remain sporadic and most academics – despite goodwill to contribute – still perceive major barriers to participation, which typically include a general lack of time to contribute, but also barriers of a technical, social and cultural nature. These encompass the lack of incentives from the perspective of a professional career, the poor recognition of one’s expertise within Wikipedia, the widespread perception of Wikipedia as a non-authoritative source. In combination with the apparent anomaly of collaborative – and often anonymous – authorship and the resulting fluidity of Wikipedia articles, these factors create an environment that significantly differs from the ones experts are accustomed to. Now, the Wikimedia Research Committee has launched a survey to understand why scientists, academics and other experts do (or do not) contribute to Wikipedia, and whether individual motivation aligns with shared perceptions of Wikipedia within different communities of experts. The survey is anonymous and takes about 20 minutes to complete. Whether you are an active Wikipedia contributor or not, you can take the survey and help Wikipedia think of ways around barriers to expert participation. Participate at the survey at: http://survey.nitens.org/?sid=21693 «·´`·.(*·.¸(`·.¸ ¸.·´)¸.·*).·´`·» «·´¨*·¸¸« Mayo Fuster Morell ».¸.·*¨`·» «·´`·.(¸.·´(¸.·* *·.¸)`·.¸).·´`·» Research Digital Commons Governance: http://www.onlinecreation.info Ph.D European University Institute Postdoctoral Researcher. Institute of Govern and Public Policies. Autonomous University of Barcelona. Visiting scholar. Internet Interdisciplinary Institute. Open University of Catalonia (UOC). Visiting researcher (2008). School of information. University of California, Berkeley. Member Research Committee. Wikimedia Foundation http://www.onlinecreation.info E-mail: mayo.fus...@eui.eu Skype: mayoneti Phone Spanish State: 0034-648877748 - +info http://list.fcforum.net/wws/info/fcforum_discussion - +info http://list.fcforum.net/wws/info/fcforum_discussion ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikimedia-in-mum] Liam Wyatt's visit to Mumbai and GLAM meetup - a summary
On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 10:18 AM, sankarshan foss.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote: 2011/2/14 shirish शिरीष shirisha...@gmail.com: In Pune, around this time lot of colleges have their technical weeks where they show projects, last year and couple of years before I had seen students who had made nice OCR's which could work with indic languages but obviously required lot of polish and getting into the whole 'code maintainance' thing. The students motivation for that had been to do as a project and not getting things 'maintained' which is unglamorous grunt work. Also documentation is something that would need to be looked at and fine-tuned. Indic OCR, at least the bits that are available under an appropriate FOSS license, have an accuracy of around 80%. Considering the volume and fragility of what you will OCR, that's remarkably low. please send links to such technology. it does not matter if the accuracy is only 80%. Which means people have a role to play there. I see this as a clear opportunity asking for volunteer time. create a site with an image and the partially correct page side by side, and ask the volunteers to correct it. we can conduct workshops in colleges to seek help of this kind. Meanwhile, when people recognize where and what kinds of places the OCR sucks, we can think of solving those problems. This kind of work itself will help improve the existing OCR for indic-languages. -- GN -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Malayalam Wikipedia crossed the 15, 000 article mark
On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 10:58 PM, Naveen Francis navee...@gmail.com wrote: Malayalam Wikipedia has crossed the 15,000 article milestone today. Congrats Malayalam wiki community !!! great! -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
